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For about 15 years after the great financial crisis, when rates were near zero, bonds had almost no return potential and only downside in the face of rate hikes. At that time, many investors just went to cash instead.

Purpose of a bond alongside your equities is for it to zig when the rest of it zags. If you have something with an appreciable amount of duration, with fortress-like capital (think US treasuries long term), ideally that part of your portfolio should go up in a big market selloff. Provides some ballast for the ride.

He meets many young investors who have decided to go 100% into equities; the long time horizon will work for them. Not so for retirees or those who are risk-averse. Investor, know thyself.

Holds both banks and lifecos, so a broader basket than ZEB. Light leverage at 1.25x (adds risk), so it amplifies the upside as well as the downside. Gives you a bit of a long-term chance of outperforming a bit, especially if markets go up in the very long term. 

Good if you want to make a macro call on rising rates, which is like the bread and butter of financial markets. His strategists are calling for rates to go the other way if there's a recession, and this ETF will participate in that.

Disclosure: Includes National Bank, which is where he works.

Because the name includes the word "enhanced", it will use some kind of derivative component to increase returns. A lot of whipsawing in the markets on tariff talk. Could be a good way to wait out the tariff situation on the Canada-US border.

Compare this ETF to the similar one from Hamilton.

Very new, launched in 2024. Bitcoin is uniquely volatile. This ETF uses leverage to take each $1 invested to give you both bitcoin and gold. Complicated techniques to give multiple forms of exposure. Very sophisticated, very risky.

Ways to get exposure to gold safely by holding the bullion are through GLD or IAU.

Using call options to generate income on equities and fixed income products. We saw worrying signs a couple of weeks ago that the correlation between the fixed income part of your portfolio and US recession risk may be breaking down. 

Ideally, if there were a recession on the horizon, rate cuts would be forecast and bonds would be purchased. The bond market would go up and there would be a flight to treasuries, all while the stock market's going down. A couple of weeks ago, we saw both bonds and equities going down. With the US launching a trade war against the entire world, investors were trying to get out of US dollar positions. US treasuries may not have the type of cushioning effects you want in the tariff trade war. Short-term instruments are probably better.

The 3 are on different notches on the dial of risk and growth. Allocate your money according to your risk appetite.

ZUE is solid and probably the safest, even though it has enormous exposure to mega-cap tech companies. There are ETFs to downscale your risk from that, such as RSP (equal weight) and EQL.

ZQQ has been excellent for achieving currency-hedged exposure to the NASDAQ 100. So it's even more tech and growth. Huge demand in 2023 and 2024, but (as we've seen) very exposed to downside volatility in the trade war environment.

SOXX is purely semiconductors. Enormous ups and downs on headline risk with generative AI. Even riskier.

The 3 are on different notches on the dial of risk and growth. Allocate your money according to your risk appetite.

ZUE is solid and probably the safest, even though it has enormous exposure to mega-cap tech companies. There are ETFs to downscale your risk from that, such as RSP (equal weight) and EQL.

ZQQ has been excellent for achieving currency-hedged exposure to the NASDAQ 100. So it's even more tech and growth. Huge demand in 2023 and 2024, but (as we've seen) very exposed to downside volatility in the trade war environment.

SOXX is purely semiconductors. Enormous ups and downs on headline risk with generative AI. Even riskier.

The 3 are on different notches on the dial of risk and growth. Allocate your money according to your risk appetite.

ZUE is solid and probably the safest, even though it has enormous exposure to mega-cap tech companies. There are ETFs to downscale your risk from that, such as RSP (equal weight) and EQL.

ZQQ has been excellent for achieving currency-hedged exposure to the NASDAQ 100. So it's even more tech and growth. Huge demand in 2023 and 2024, but (as we've seen) very exposed to downside volatility in the trade war environment.

SOXX is purely semiconductors. Enormous ups and downs on headline risk with generative AI. Even riskier.

The 3 are on different notches on the dial of risk and growth. Allocate your money according to your risk appetite.

ZUE is solid and probably the safest, even though it has enormous exposure to mega-cap tech companies. There are ETFs to downscale your risk from that, such as RSP (equal weight) and EQL.

ZQQ has been excellent for achieving currency-hedged exposure to the NASDAQ 100. So it's even more tech and growth. Huge demand in 2023 and 2024, but (as we've seen) very exposed to downside volatility in the trade war environment.

SOXX is purely semiconductors. Enormous ups and downs on headline risk with generative AI. Even riskier.

The 3 are on different notches on the dial of risk and growth. Allocate your money according to your risk appetite.

ZUE is solid and probably the safest, even though it has enormous exposure to mega-cap tech companies. There are ETFs to downscale your risk from that, such as RSP (equal weight) and EQL.

ZQQ has been excellent for achieving currency-hedged exposure to the NASDAQ 100. So it's even more tech and growth. Huge demand in 2023 and 2024, but (as we've seen) very exposed to downside volatility in the trade war environment.

SOXX is purely semiconductors. Enormous ups and downs on headline risk with generative AI. Even riskier.

A nice way to diversify away from North America. Dividends tend to downrisk a bit in a portfolio. Cheap. Simple dividend methodology. High allocation to European financials. Less on growth. Dividend yield is not super high, so don't expect big income gains.

He likes to point out that he and his team are research analysts, not portfolio managers. So his "picks" are actually "research highlights" that have come up in his work.

This ETF bubbled to the top of his screen when researching which sectors were less exposed to US revenue sources. Staples are already a bit recession-proof, and this is Canada-focused. Feeds into the narrative of self-sufficiency. ETF fee on this one has been waived until the end of the year.

Can act as a diversifier, moving differently from stocks and bonds in your portfolio. A simple product. Global markets are worried about the trade war, and gold is behaving exactly as it should in that situation. Currency hedged, so it outperformed recently when the USD fell suddenly but the CAD jumped by 5%. One of the cheaper gold bullion ETFs, with a MER ~17-20 bps.

Wait a bit before jumping in. Use a small position, and keep rebalancing.